My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin: Book Review

My Last Innocent Year is the story of a college student who experiences a nonconsensual intimate encounter with a friend in senior year. It is a thought-provoking debut read.

Acknowledgments:

Thank you to Henry Holt & Co and Macmillan Audio for the ARC and audiobook of My Last Innocent Year. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

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From The Publisher:

It’s the winter of 1998 and Isabel Rosen has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire with a wealthy, elite student body and the sort of picturesque buildings college brochures were invented to capture. The only daughter of a Lower East Side appetizing store owner, Isabel has always felt out of place at Wilder, and the death of her mother shortly before she arrived on campus left her feeling unmoored in a way that’s proven hard to shake. Now, right as she’s coming to believe she’s finally found her place, the fallout from a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves Isabel reeling.

Enter R.H. Connelly: a once-famous poet and Isabel’s married writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful, talented; the woman she longs to become. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself. The two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is, for better and worse.

Set against the backdrop of the Clinton and Lewinsky scandal, My Last Innocent Year is a coming-of-age story about a young woman on the brink of sexual and artistic awakening, navigating her way toward independence while recognizing the power, beauty and grit of where she came from. Timely and wise, it reckons with the complexities of consent, what it means to be an adult, and whether or not we can ever outrun our bad decisions.

My Thoughts:

Isobel Rosen is a married woman with a daughter. The book is primarily set in her senior year of college in the late 1990s as Isobel reflects upon this point in her life.

Isobel recalls a situation that she encountered with a male friend who has an intimate experience with her. One minute the two were making out. The next moment he became more aggressive and physically violates her. She did not voice that she didn’t want to go this far and he didn’t ask her if it would be okay. She’s confused as to whether or not this would be considered rape. She informs her roommate who goes ballistic and marks this man as a rapist.

Jump ahead a month or so. Isobel is attracted to her married professor Connelly. The two carry on an affair and Isobel falls fast for this man. Later, she finds out a little more about this man which changes her perspective. Without giving too much away, this affair continues to haunt Isobel to this day.

The story is character-driven and was a little slow at times for me. I don’t know how I feel about Isobel. On the one hand, I could not help but feel concerned for her regarding her experience with her friend. On the other hand, I have no tolerance for adultery, particularly going into a relationship knowing that the other is married. Having said that, the prose in this book is beautiful which helped to keep my interest.

There are multiple trigger warnings for this book including consensual sex versus lack of consent/rape, mental health struggles, infidelity/cheating, and suicide. This book will not be for everyone.

I listened to the audiobook version of My Last Innocent Year which was narrated by Sarah Bierstock. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance which was expressive, articulate and a pleasure to listen to. I’d recommend the audiobook version of this book to those that enjoy this format.

What I Liked:

• The beautifully written prose
• The thought-provoking story
• The takeaway Isobel gleams from these relationships